West punches back over attack ad

Rep. Allen West hit back Friday against an attack ad in which a caricature of the Florida Republican punches a senior citizen and middle-aged woman.

“Where is the outrage from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and the NAACP about this?” West said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “They’re not going to say anything because they’re nothing but an effective wing of the Democrat party and they have effectively kept them well laced so they can continue to make sure that they have a black electorate voting bloc.”

“West has socked it to seniors, voting to end Medicare as we know it,” the narrator says, as a smiling caricature of West, wearing boxing gloves in a ring, punches an elderly man. “He’s whacked women, with his votes for huge cuts in women’s health care funding,” the narrator continues, as the caricature punches a middle-aged woman.

In an email titled “Disgusting” and sent to supporters Thursday, West wrote: “The ad being run against me by my opponent’s family depicting violence against women and senior citizens is reprehensible. It plays on stereotypes and fear to divide Americans, and it cheapens the very real and tragic occurrences of violence against women and seniors.”

On Fox on Friday, West called out African-American political leaders for not coming to his defense, saying the media would be outraged if conservatives “ran a picture of a black Democrat politician or congressman punching white women and white seniors.”

According to FEC filings, American Sunrise has received just two donations: from Ibrahim Al-Rashid, a businessman from Miami, Fla., who donated $100,000; and Patrick Murphy’s father, Thomas Murphy, who donated $250,000.

Murphy campaign spokesman Anthony Kusich said in a statement to POLITICO that they “had nothing to do with the content or creation of this ad.”

“However,” the statement continued, “it is amazing to hear Allen West complain considering he recently called Social Security ‘slavery,’ said the President is trying to ‘enslave’ Americans, and told a female colleague she was ‘vile and despicable.’ Further, it is telling that West does not dispute the votes cited in the ad, including his vote to dismantle Medicare, open up the prescription drug donut hole, and against women’s healthcare and insurance coverage. He even voted against the Violence Against Women Act. His anti-senior and anti-woman record is clear.”

West campaign spokesman Tim Edson replied in a statement to POLITICO, “Patrick Murphy is completely embarrassing himself. Comparing his dishonest accounting of Congressman West’s votes to the tv ad that his family is running depicting violence against seniors and women, and refusing to condemn it is despicable. Patrick Murphy has set a new low bar for negative campaigning in American politics.”